Essais is UVU’s premier student publication for scholarly endeavors in critical literary analysis and literary theory. The journal also publishes work that engages with film, religious texts, new media, and other cultural artifacts. Essais means “efforts,” or “endeavors” in French, and this is the only journal at UVU devoted to publishing students’ rigorous forays into this notoriously complex and exciting academic terrain.
As with the other publications sponsored by the Department of English and Literature, the Essais staff is comprised entirely of current UVU student volunteers. There are two ways to get involved:
Work on the Staff of Essais!
Essais is always looking for copyeditors, typesetters, source-checkers, Managing Editors, Technical Editors, and Editor-in-Chief. (Students in the latter three positions are eligible to earn internship credit.) Working on Essais is an excellent experience for anyone who wants to apply to graduate school; to build a career as a technical, creative, critical, or journalistic writer; to continue thinking about questions broached in theory or upper-level literature courses; or to become more involved in the collaborative peer-review and fun social event-planning aspects of journal work.
To apply for work with Essais, please fill out thisInformation Form.
Publish in Essais!
A publication in Essais will look great on any professional résumé or academic curriculum vitae. The journal invites current UVU students to submit academic essays that rigorously engage literature and/or literary theory. (Students may also submit up to one semester after graduation.) Submissions are chosen for publication by a panel of student editors in a double-blind selection process. Selected essays will be considered for publication pending a revision process in which editors work with authors to polish their piece.
Recommendations: Consider submitting an essay that received a good grade in a previous course. These papers are great foundations for Essais publications. Remember that you can expand and/or develop a paper prior to submitting with the help of an instructor or mentor.
Requirements: 8-15 pages (double spaced), MLA formatting and Works Cited page, must cite outside sources.
Responsibilities: Authors whose papers are accepted commit to completing extensive revisions on their paper, as well as participating in editorial workshops with faculty advisors and student staff.
Submission Instructions.
Submission deadline: Fall 2024 Deadline TBD
1. Keep the title of your submission, but remove any other identifying information — name, last name next to page numbers, name of instructor, etc. — from the body of the essay.
2. Save your file as a .doc/.docx or a .pdf. Using other file formats may result in your submission not being accessible to the editors.
3. E-mail your submission as an attachment to [email protected]. In the body of the email, include a brief summary (about 100 words) of the essay, the course for which you wrote it, and the semester when you took the course.
Faculty Advisors:
Professor Lydia Kerr ([email protected])
